


mistletoe

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Series: Borderlands Prompts/Requests [6]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Fist Fights, Fluff, M/M, Mistletoe, Tumblr Prompt, only referenced tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: "1 with Rhysothy?"-Anonymous--Rhys knows who keeps hanging mistletoe in the facility, but he's managed to avoid getting caught under it so far.Until now.
Relationships: Timothy Lawrence/Rhys
Series: Borderlands Prompts/Requests [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648405
Kudos: 17





	mistletoe

Living and working in buildings that had very few manual doors, and even fewer doors that could just be left open, had certain benefits during the winters.

Most prominently was the benefit of all of the heat being sealed inside the building. After much maintenance work, everything was sealed up nicely and the heating systems were fine-tuned to keep it just this side of too-warm in all of the rooms, no matter how cavernous. It kept Rhys  _ and _ all of his employees quite happy, and everyone was thankful for it―particularly any veterans of the staff, who had been here for the first winter that Atlas Tech had been producing.

A smaller, secondary benefit that Rhys had not counted on nor even really considered, was that mistletoe could not be placed in the doorframes of automatic doors.

Truth be told, he often forgot that mistletoe even  _ existed, _ and as a CEO constantly working his ass off to make sure that things were running smoothly, even with Tim around to help him he just didn’t have a head for remembering mundane things like that. He and most of his workers had their heads so full of their efforts to keep the company afloat and on the rise that, if not for Tim’s drunken declaration that it was almost Christmas on the fourth, Rhys was quite sure that they all would have forgotten what time of year it was.

That aside, though, he didn’t realize how lucky he was that most of the doors were automatic or had to be kept shut until about or around the eighth, when he walked into the office he shared with Tim and realized there was a sprig of mistletoe hanging innocuously from the ceiling in the narrow little alley of filing cabinets that led to Tim’s desk.

He studiously avoided being caught under it with Tim despite the fact that they were already, you know,  _ dating, _ simply for the sake of not being walked in on when they inevitably got carried away. Not to mention that kissing Tim in the office was a sure-fire way for him to end up too distracted to get anything done… And news travelled fast, and the general workforce was  _ not _ aware of Tim and Rhys’ relationship, so he didn’t want that news getting out at this stage. Maybe when things were a little more stable in the company, you know? It was entirely too early for a scandal.

But that one little sprig of mistletoe was hardly the last one he saw.

Someone, it seemed, had a habit of attaching it to every available doorway and inopportune space. There was so much mistletoe that even Fuse and Var had mistakenly gotten stuck under one together, and that had been an adventure. They’d declared that they were now “Mistlefoes” the moment they realized the sprig was there, and had proceeded to give each other matching black eyes  _ on the spot. _

“Mistle _ foes _ , huh?” Rhys had asked when they made their way to his desk after punching each other in the face just inside the door.

“Instead of kissing each other you have to fuckin’  _ wreck _ whoever’s under the shit with ya.” Fuse had informed him gleefully.

“Fightin’s better than kissin’, anyhow.” Var had agreed.

Rhys had let it go with a disbelieving chuckle and some uttered commentary about how Terrans were fucking  _ weird. _

Still, he hadn’t had much personal issue with all of the mistletoe until it started popping up in the housing project as well. The moment it began to appear there, he had a problem with it, because not getting caught under it with Tim was a little more difficult when going to and from work.

But, thing was, he was  _ pretty _ sure he knew who the culprit was.

After all―if not for Tim, everyone else would have forgotten it was December.

He couldn’t be that angry at Tim for it, either, because frankly? Even if it was getting on his nerves a bit, it was all in good fun and the employees were getting a kick out of it. Even Fuse and Var, with their weird Terran “Mistlefoe” bullshit, were clearly enjoying having to stay on their toes and keep an eye on the mistletoe either so they could willingly become Mistlefoes or so they could avoid getting into a fistfight today. And the other employees seemed to be having just as much fun―some of them had even decided to use Fuse and Var’s Mistlefoe bullshit as a way to resolve conflicts quickly and then get back to work.

It was still annoying, though.

And then, inevitably, he found a sprig waiting for him as soon as he walked into his apartment. Given Tim was right behind him, it should be obvious they both ended up under it. Rhys almost cursed having stopped to look for it, and inadvertently stopping  _ right under it _ as a result, but…

Whatever.

He kicked his door closed and turned to Tim.

Tim grinned, sheepishly, as if he knew he’d been caught… But there weren’t really any other options for who it could have been, given only four people had access to Rhys’ apartment.

"Alright Mister," Rhys said, "I know you're the one who keeps hanging up mistletoe everywhere."

Tim gave a half-nervous little titter.

_ “You,”  _ He began, fondly exasperated, “Do  _ not _ give up, do you?”

Tim’s sheepish grin grew, and he said, “Never was a quitter, no.”

And Rhys could only laugh, still just as exasperated, still just as fond. This was his boyfriend.  _ This guy. _ This ridiculous little… He laughed again, a little harder, and pulled Tim into a kiss.

Tim lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as he pulled away, grinning in genuine delight even as Rhys went about shucking off his coat and boots and he followed after.

“To be honest,” Tim admitted, as they went to sit down on the couch, “I was half-expecting you to be annoyed enough you’d decide we were Mistlefoes.”

And Rhys snorted, muffling his laugh as best he could, tugging Tim onto the couch with him. “Tim, I’m right-handed. I’d knock the shit out of you.”

Tim snickered in reply, shifting with him so they could get comfortable. “Still.”

Rhys rolled his eyes, laying his head against the man’s broad chest and relaxing. He guessed the other benefit to locked, automatic doors was that no one would ever get to see him like this. No one but Tim and Fuse and Var, that was.

He’d take what he could get.

Especially if cuddles were involved in that.


End file.
